Papers (1953, 1965-1979) including correspondence, letters, memos, reports, political and economic information.
Eric Wilson Pollard was born May 18, 1917. Appointed from California, he was a member of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1941. He served as a Naval aviator and, prior to 1953, as the first Naval attaché to Iran. His fluency in both French and Persian and his ability to work with the Iranians were of great import. After serving in various capacities, including special assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities within Iran, Pollard retired in 1965 and engaged in commerce there with Wilton International Consultants, Inc.
This collection includes several letters and memos from government officials such as Ambassador Loy Henderson (1953), Vice President Hubert Humphrey (1966), Admiral Arleigh Burke, USN (Ret) (1979), and Harold Brown, director of Defense Research and Engineering and secretary of defense (1965, 1979). Most of the correspondence commends Capt. Pollard for his service in Iran. Correspondence (1979), which was written after the fall of the shah's government and the establishment of the Khomeni regime, includes the outline of a salvage operation developed by Pollard. In his letter, Pollard expresses anger at the execution of General Manucher Khosrodad, a pro-U.S. Iranian general.
The centerpiece of the collection is a report entitled "Security Reappraisals for the Forward Defense Countries (in this case Iran and Pakistan) for U.S. Policy Purposes for the 1970s." The eighteen pages of text and eighteen pages of tables and notes are the culmination of a nine-month study by Captain Pollard (1965). It documents Pollard's perception of the instability of the shah's government in Iran and the numerous forces that might work together or separately to cause its collapse. It also includes information onthe political, economic, and socio-cultural background, and the military status of Iran in 1965.
Gift of Eric W. Pollard USN (Ret)
Processed by C. Crews, March 1991
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.